The Latest Breaking News from Haruki Murakami

Let’s be honest, thinking about death is something most of us avoid. It’s an uncomfortable, often frightening topic that we push to the back of our minds. But what if confronting our mortality could actually enrich our lives? These selected quotes about death aren’t meant to be morbid; they are…

Suzanne Dean’s illustration is unmatched.

William S. Burroughs was a gay drug addict. A knot of contradictions, he was also deeply homophobic, sexist, racist and a gun-loving conservative, a passion that would eventually lead to him to be convicted of manslaughter. Needless to say, his life was as wild as his fiction – just watch…

Haruki Murakami’s most recent novel, The City and its Uncertain Walls, revolves around two parallel stories, one focusing on a 17-year-old boy, the other on a 45-year-old man. Readers of the translated English version will gradually become aware of the two worlds, as each first-person narrator establishes his respective setting…

On his third attempt, the author finally sets down a story that has haunted him for decades

Japanese writer Haruki Murakami has won phenomenal worldwide popularity. His Norwegian Wood, marketed as ren’ai shōsetsu (a romance novel) when it was first published in Japan in 1987, has become a veritable bible of love among young people in East Asia. English translations of Kafka On the Shore and 1Q84…

As his new novel is published, the acclaimed author discusses complexity, writing female characters and meeting his fans

From tales of alienation to comforting novels set in bookshops, Japanese authors have written nearly half of this year’s bestselling translated novels in the UK. What’s their secret?

Murakami’s 15th novel retreads a form of magical realism that hasn’t evolved